The newest AP talked that have a few dozen previous elder You

The newest AP talked that have a few dozen previous elder You

Once the Rocha pleaded simple of jail this week to 15 government counts , FBI and you may State department investigators was basically trying to discover the new case’s biggest shed portion: precisely what the long time diplomat many years analysis, tricky by have a tendency to-murky intelligence world, that’s expected to need age.

S. counterintelligence authorities, Cuban intelligence defectors, and you may nearest and dearest and you can acquaintances out-of Rocha so you’re able to piece together what’s identified to date of their so-called betrayal, and the skipped clues and red flags that could has actually assisted your avoid scrutiny for many years.

It wasn’t merely Rodriguez’s tipster – whom he would not select on AP but states is actually has just questioned of the FBI. Officials advised new AP one as soon as 1987, new CIA try aware Castro got an excellent “super mole” burrowed strong inside U.S. government. Some now think it might was Rocha and therefore because no less than 2010 he might had been into a primary checklist supplied to the latest FBI out of possible Cuban spies high-up from inside the overseas coverage circles.

Rocha’s attorneys did not address Baltian vaimo messages seeking review. The brand new FBI and you can CIA refused so you can feedback. The state Institution told you from inside the a statement it will still manage associated companies in order to “totally measure the overseas rules and you can federal protection effects ones costs.”

“This is exactly good monumental bang-right up,” told you Peter Romero, a former assistant assistant away from condition to own Latin The united states which has worked that have Rocha. “We are all performing a number of soul searching and you will no person can put together something. He performed an amazing work covering their tracks.”

Humble Roots

He had been created when you look at the Colombia and at age 10 gone that have their widowed mom and two siblings so you can New york city. They resided for a time from inside the Harlem if you are his mommy has worked inside an effective sweatshop and you will had because of the by using dining stamps.

A skilled soccer pro that have a-sharp intellect, he won a scholarship to possess minorities within the 1965 to go to Brand new Taft University, a top-notch boarding school when you look at the Connecticut. At once he had been skyrocketed to what the guy entitled a beneficial “ghetto” engulfed into the competition riots so you can a refined arena of American money.

However, among not all the minorities at the school, Rocha says he sustained discrimination – together with a classmate which refused to place that have your – something that supported a beneficial grudge that members of the family believe possess added your to help you appreciate Castro’s revolution.

Away from Taft, he decided to go to Yale, in which he finished having celebrates which have a qualification into the Latin american knowledge, immediately after which on to graduate manage Harvard and you may Georgetown.

It isn’t obvious exactly how Rocha may have been employed from the Cuba however, prosecutors state it just happened a bit from the 1970s whenever he had been nevertheless accumulating values and you can American school campuses were teeming having youngsters sympathetic so you’re able to leftist factors.

Into the 1973, the season the guy graduated of Yale, Rocha moved to Chile, in which prosecutors say he became good “high pal” away from Cuba’s cleverness institution, the overall Directorate out of Cleverness, or DGI. One to same 12 months, the CIA helped topple the new Castro-recognized socialist government away from Salvador Allende, substitution they having an intense army dictatorship.

Around the same go out, Rocha registered the original out-of his around three marriage ceremonies, so you’re able to an adult Colombian woman he hardly talked going to family unit members, and who is now lower than analysis to own it is possible to connections in order to Cuba, considering anyone who has come expected by the FBI. New AP are unable to achieve the woman or to get people record of the marriage.

‘Every Element of A beneficial PLAN’

Once signing up for new international solution from inside the 1981, certainly Rocha’s earliest overseas posts is once the a governmental-armed forces factors manager within the Honduras, in which the guy advised the newest Contras within fight against Cuba-backed leftist rebels into the neighboring Nicaragua.